Exposed
by FairyOfTheDragonFlame666
Summary: A regular day at Mako Island will turn into the biggest risk of the mermaids being revealed. Cleo is captured by a villain named Colement, who's a shapeshifter. Over the years she took the form of Charlotte, Miriam, Dr. Denman, even Sophie! Emma betrays the group, putting herself and the others in danger. Will their secret be exposed?


**EXPOSED**

**Chapter One: Captured**

*****Rikki's P.O.V.*****

Early one morning I picked up my phone. I dialed Cleo's number.

"Hey Cleo do you want to go for a morning swim?" I asked once she picked up her phone.

"Sure," she replied, "I'll meet you at Mako Island soon"

"Okay," I said. "I'll call Bella and see you there."

"Bye."

"Bye.

I hung up and called Bella.

"Hello?" she said.

"Bella, do you want to go for a morning swim?" I asked her.

"Okay. I'll be there in a bit."

"See you there"

"Okay"

And finally I called Emma.

"Hey Rikki." said Emma, when she answered.

"Emma, do you want to go for a swim with me, Bella, and Cleo?" I asked. Emma was always up for swimming.

But not this time.

"Sorry, Rik. I've got some important things to do."

Just as I was about to ask what, Emma hung up.

_That was weird. _I thought. But Emma was always busy, so I couldn't blame her.

I ran outside and towards the beach. When I reached the ocean I dove into the waves. My beautiful orange tail formed, taking place of my legs.

I swam far away from the shore and soon reached the moon pool. No one was there yet. I waited for about five minutes and then Bella showed up.

"Where's Cleo?" I asked her.

"I don't know," responded Bella. "Maybe she's right behind me?"

I shook my head. "That's not possible. I called her like 20 minutes ago and even she would be here by now."

"Well I guess we'll have to wait…" Bella suggested.

I agreed hesitantly. Within ten minutes we were getting impatient. Bella and I pulled ourselves out of the water. I dried us off. When our legs returned, Cleo still hadn't showed up.

We paced back and forth, waiting and waiting. The more we waited, the more worried we became.

After what seemed like forever but was really about 25 minutes, I muttered "Where the hell are you, Cleo?" under my breath.

Bella overheard me. "I'm sure she'll be here soon." she assured.

Just as Bella said that, a small crumbled-up piece of paper floated into the moon pool from the entrance.

"What's that?" asked Bella. We crawled towards it. I carefully lifted it out of the water and onto a rock.

"Can you turn the water into jelly?" I asked. Bella looked at me like I was crazy.

"Why can't you just dry it off?" she said.

"I'll burn it."

Bella sighed and made her hand movement. The water covering the paper turned into a gelatine substance. I peeled it from the paper, and threw the jelly into the moon pool. Soon enough the jelly evaporated.

The paper looked like it had never even touched water. It was as dry as can be.

All that was on it were the words

_HELP  
_-Cleo

"What has happened to her?!" shrieked Bella, who was really panicking now.

"Calm down," I said. "We'll go find her. It came through the entrance. We'll need to go that way."

I dove into the water, with Bella following me. We swam all around, looking for a sign of Cleo.

Finally, Bella waved for me to come over. I swam towards her.

She pointed to an underwater door in the reef. We both worked together to open it. We succeeded, and swam into it.

It looked like some sort of metal room.

Bella pushed a button, which emptied the water around us. But without the water, Bella and I flopped onto the floor like codfish out of water.

I dried us off. Our tails steamed up. Our legs came back to us.

We both stood up. Bella started walking down a tunnel. I followed. Sure enough, we found Cleo. She was tied to a wooden chair, and her mouth covered with a blindfold.

A glimpse of Cleo's condition caused a look of horror to sprout on Bella's face.

Cleo muffled something we couldn't understand. Trying to make it out, we felt a cold surge of water hit our heads. I spun around to see who it was. It was almost impossible to make out who it was with my wet hair blocking my eyes. I forced my hair away, and I was shocked to see who had splashed us.

"Emma?!" I shouted. What the hell was going on?

*****Cleo's P.O.V.*****

Bella and Rikki were as shocked as I was. Emma? My longtime friend? The girl who became mermaids with us? All of her, had just betrayed the 3 of us. But honestly, none of us knew what was going on.

After Bella and Rikki got splashed, their tails grew and they flopped onto the ground.

"Emma? What have you done? What are you doing?" I said, as I finally got the white hankie off of my mouth.

Emma smirked. "Who says I'm Emma?" she said.

"What?" said Bella. "You're not even making any sense."

Shock turned to horror as Emma pressed a button on her locket, and she morphed into the body of none other than the nefarious Charlotte.

"The real Emma's right here." pointed Charlotte. Emma walked into the room, wearing a lab coat.

"I'm all of your enemies from year after year." said Charlotte. She continuously pressed her locket, and she morphed into Dr. Denman, Miriam, Charlotte, and back into Emma.

"Who are you?" asked Rikki. "_What _the hell are you?"

The second Emma smirked. "That's not important, child." she said.

"I'm not a child!" screamed Rikki. She tried to burn the Emma clone, but Bella stopped her. Bella said with her eyes that it was a bad idea, and they could end up hurt.

"Dr. Gilbert, please put the DX71SERUM into the girls." said Emma number two. Emma nodded, and placed a needle into Bella's arm.

"OUCH" said Bella. She blacked out. Emma did the same with Rikki, and no matter how much she tried Rikki couldn't stay awake.

The last thing I remember from that time is feeling the needle sink into my right arm.

*****Bella's P.O.V.*****

I opened my eyes to find myself in darkness. I couldn't see a thing. I didn't know why.

_Am I dead? _

_Did that serum make me blind? _

_Am I dreaming?_

But I realized I was blindfolded. My hands were tied on my lap. I tried to move my legs. But I couldn't; I was in my mermaid form.

I felt another girl's fluke touch mine. I lifted my hands to identify her. I could feel her curly hair at my fingertips. I knew just who it was.

"Rikki." I whispered. She, too, was knocked out.

"Rikki" I said again. "Rikki! Wake up!"

Rikki moved. She woke up.

"Where are we?" she whispered back.

"I don't know." I replied.

"Where's Cleo?" asked Rikki.

"I think she's next to me." I nudged another tail next to me.

"What is it?" said Cleo.

"Ssssh!" I shushed.

I swallowed. Where were we?

I heard a door open.

"What do you want?" said Rikki.

"Glad you're all awake, girls" said the person.

Cleo knew who it was. "Dr. Denman?" she exclaimed.

"Who else?" she said. Even through the blindfold I could tell she was smirking.

She walked over and took the blindfolds off of our eyes.

"What do you want from us?" I asked, my voice shaking with fear.

Once again Dr. Denman smirked at us. I could see Cleo was swallowing. Rikki was braced herself for a fight.

Within a second, I felt a needle sink into my tail. I screamed in pain.

"Bella!" shrieked Cleo. Tears were starting to come down my face. I breathed heavily.

By the time Dr. Denman stopped, my tail felt like it had been sawn in half.

"Don't you dare do that again, you bitch!" shouted Rikki.

Dr. Denman was so angry she slapped Rikki on the face. I was able to tell that Rikki felt the pain, but she wasn't backing down.

She tried to burn the evil scientist, but Dr. Denman splashed water on her, even though Rikki was already in mermaid form.

"What do you want from us?" I asked again.

"All I want you to know is who I really am." the scientist said slyly. She pressed the locket around her neck and revolved into Charlotte.

"Don't you see?" she said. "I have been with you ever since the beginning."

Charlotte pressed the locket again, and she turned into a girl that looked like Miriam, someone Cleo and Rikki mentioned to me.

She turned herself into Sophie. I couldn't believe it.

"What about Will?" I asked, still afraid. "Are you his sister?"

Sophie laughed. She shook her head and placed a test tube in front of me. The label almost gave me a heart attack.

_Brainwash Serum X42_

"You…you didn't…" I stuttered.

"Oh, I did." cackled Sophie. She morphed back into Charlotte.

"What the hell are you?" asked Rikki.

The smile faded from Charlotte's face.

"Well, I guess it's time you finally knew." she said. "My name is Colement. I am a _shapeshifter. _I was there when you transformed into mermaids for the first time."

Suddenly, the four of us were whipped into a flashback. Rikki was walking in the park. A sprinkler turned on. She got wet. I watched as she fell to the ground and grew her tail for the first time in her life. But out of the corner of my eye, I spied a face planted into a tree. Colement. She watched her transform.

Another flashback. Emma dove into the water for a morning swim. Her tail grew onto her. Once again, I saw Colement, but as a surfer girl who had gone underwater without Emma knowing.

Next we saw was Cleo in the bathtub with her tail. Some wandering eyes that belonged to Colement spied on her.

The last flashback we witnessed was me as a nine year-old jumping into the moon pool and seeing my beautiful tail transform.

We finally teleported back into the science room.

All three of us were too shocked to say anything.

The next thing we knew we were being hauled out by an army of men.

They wheeled us out like we were dying people at the hospital. Each one of us were on one of those beds you'd see in a doctor's office, with the paper and all.

Rikki was relentless. She flopped off of her bed and onto the floor. She used her powers to burn the ropes tied around her wrists.

The men tried to pick her up, but Cleo controlled the water from a nearby fountain to keep them away. She splashed them so hard they fell to the ground.

An independent Rikki dried off herself. She got to her feet and dried us off, too. We headed for the door.

Just as we were near our freedom, I felt a sharp needle stick into my shoulder. I looked around. Rikki and Cleo had been hit, too.

The room started getting dark…it was fading away…

* * *

*****Rikki's P.O.V.*****

I found myself awake. I didn't know what happened. I looked at a clock.

7:30 p.m. Three hours had passed since we were hit with the darts just as we were about to run away.

I heard someone coming. I closed my eyes and pretended to be unconscious.

It was Dr. Denman. And Emma. The one I thought who was my friend.

"And you're sure the serum worked?" asked Dr. Denman.

"Positive," replied Emma, "But we're gonna have to be careful. Who knows when the effects could wear off, and we can't afford to have them taking off like that again."

Emma? _She _ruined our one chance of escaping? I knew she helped Dr. Denman, I mean, Colement, but how could she?

"And you promise to keep your word?" said Emma.

"I promise. I do experiments on the girls, your secret is kept a secret." swore Dr. Denman.

"Good. Because if you brake that promise so help me I will kick your ass." Emma threatened.

Inside, I was fuming with anger. Emma betrayed us! She sold us out and saved herself instead. In the back of my mind I had a feeling Colement had something to do with Emma's betrayal.

I would do it. I would get us out of this. I have to be the leader if Emma won't.

I just hoped we wouldn't be exposed…


End file.
